CHAPTER XI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (continued).
Prorogation of 1853—End of the Kaffir and Burmese Wars—The Wages Movement—The Preston Strike—End of the Struggle—The Crystal Palace—Its Opening by the Queen—Marriage of the Emperor of the French—His Reception of the Prince Consort—His Visit to England—At Guildhall—The Queen's Return Visit—Festivities in Paris—Lord Lyndhurst on Italy—Lord Clarendon's Reply—Similar Debate in the Commons—Speeches of Russell, Palmerston, and Disraeli—Withdrawal of the Western Missions from Naples—The Anglo-French Alliance—The Suez Canal—The Arrow Affair—Debate in the House of Lords—Mr. Cobden's Resolution—Mr. Labouchere's Reply—Lord Palmerston's Speech—The Division—Announcement of a Dissolution—Retirement of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre—Lord Palmerston's Victory at the Polls—Mr. Denison elected Speaker—Betrothal of the Princess Royal—Her Allowance—Abolition of "Ministers' Money"—The new Probate Court—The Divorce Bill in the Lords—The Bishop of Oxford's Amendments—Motions of Mr. Henley and Sir W. Heathcote—Major Warburton's Amendment—The Bill becomes Law—The Orsini Plot—Walewski's Despatch—Subsequent Correspondence—The Conspiracy to Murder Bill—Debate on the Second Reading—Defeat of the Government—The Derby Ministry.
THE war with Russia, the conclusion of which has just been recorded, and its effects on political parties and Cabinets, so fully absorbed the attention of Parliament and the public while it lasted, that comparatively little progress was made in the work of domestic legislation. It was not, however, altogether neglected. At the prorogation on the 20th of August, 1853, her Majesty congratulated Parliament on the remission of taxes which tended to cramp the operations of trade and industry; on the extension of the system of beneficent legislation, which increased the means of obtaining the necessaries of life; on the buoyant state of the revenue; on the steady progress of foreign trade; on the prosperity that pervaded the great trading and producing classes, without even a partial exception—all affording continued and increasing evidence of the enlarged comforts of the people. The Queen at the same time announced the termination of the Kaffir War, which had lasted since the beginning of 1851, the Kaffirs having repeatedly defeated our troops, and spread havoc through the villages. At length they were enabled to bring against us an army of 6,000 horsemen. They were attacked by the Governor-General Cathcart, with 2,000 British troops, and defeated with great loss. The result was that they accepted the terms of peace he proposed. The Royal Speech expressed the hope that the establishment of representative government in the Cape Colony would lead to the development of its resources, and enable it to make efficient provision for its own defence. Another subject of congratulation was the termination of the war with Burmah, which commenced in January, 1851, and was caused by the exactions of the Governor of Rangoon from British traders. At first the Court of Ava promised redress, but the Governor refused to receive the British representative, Captain Fishbourne, and Lord Dalhousie's ultimatum was treated with contempt. Accordingly a British naval force arrived before Rangoon, under Commodore Lambert, who, on January 4th, 1852, destroyed the fortifications of the Irrawaddy, and a few months later stormed Martaban, Rangoon, and Bassein. Later in the year Pegu was captured, and annexed to our Indian Empire. The objects of the war having been thus fully attained, and due submission made by the Burmese Government, peace was proclaimed.
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
The Session of 1853 had been a fruitful one—116 Bills had been introduced by the Ministry, of which 104 passed into law, 10 having been withdrawn, and 2 only rejected. This was the peaceful work of the Coalition Ministry, under the Earl of Aberdeen, which was destined to end its existence so ingloriously. Two powerful causes came into operation soon after, which clouded the political atmosphere, and gradually spread feelings of discontent and despondency throughout the nation—a bad harvest and a costly war miserably conducted. The effects of the short harvest were greatly aggravated by what was called "the Wages Movement," which commenced in April. It was generally felt by the skilled artisans that, though their employment was constant and their wages good, they did not obtain a fair measure of the extraordinary profits resulting from their labour. The consequence was a general organisation of the trades to extort better terms from their employers, enforced—if need were—by strikes. The artisans engaged in the woollen manufacture led the way in putting forth their demands. They were followed by carpenters, shipwrights, waggon-wrights, and almost every class of operative. Large concessions were made to some classes, and those employed in the coal trade especially received enormous wages. But, as the prices of provisions continued to rise the movement spread to every part of the United Kingdom, assuming its most formidable aspect in the manufacturing districts, where strikes became general, and many mills were closed. A common fund was established for the purpose of supporting the unemployed workmen, and it was hoped that the manufacturers would soon be compelled to give way. But the masters formed a counter-combination, and wherever a partial or local strike occurred, they all agreed to close their works, and thus to starve the operatives into surrender. The result was a bitter controversy, and a desperate struggle between capital and labour, which lasted with unabated obstinacy throughout the year, but, happily, unaccompanied by such acts of violence as attended strikes in former times, when the working classes were not so well educated. The leaders of the movement were able, intelligent, and energetic. The plan of the campaign was to conquer in detail, directing the attack against some particular town, compelling the firms to succumb individually till the capitalists of that district were subdued, and then carrying the war to another place. They hoped by this means to receive ample supplies for continuing the contest, because the great mass of workmen would always be employed, and would be able to support those that were out on strike. Preston and Burnley were the places in which the operations commenced on a large scale, and the contest that followed will be long remembered as "the Preston Strike." In that town, upwards of 15,000 idle hands were supported by contributions from the employed, which were so abundant, at first, that the enormous sum of £3,000 was distributed weekly—equal to about five shillings a head on an average. On this allowance they managed to exist for thirty-seven weeks. The effects were in some respects like those produced by the cotton-famine in Lancashire. First, the deposits in the saving-banks, and the sums insured for age and sickness, were consumed in obtaining the necessaries of life. Personal ornaments and wearing apparel were next sacrificed—sold for trifling sums to meet the cravings of hunger. With poor, scanty food, ragged clothes, and domestic discomfort of every kind, the habits of the operatives became debased and their tempers morose. The retail traders who depended upon them became bankrupt; many substantial shopkeepers were ruined; trade everywhere languished and the distress grew general. Still the operatives held out heroically, they insisted on one-tenth of the profits of their labour; the watchword still passed from rank to rank; they shouted enthusiastically, "Ten per cent. and no surrender!" It was stated that the passion produced by this abstract idea became a sort of religious conviction, and in one place the people assembled in a chapel and sang a hymn to "ten per cent."
But, as in wars between nations, the belligerents were ultimately compelled to come to terms by sheer exhaustion; the workers, as invariably happens in such suicidal contests, were the first to fail. In April, 1854, the supplies were diminished to a miserable pittance, the cardloom hands receiving but a shilling a week each. The contributions from distant towns fell off, while the demand was more than doubled by the men of Stockport, to the number of 18,000, suddenly throwing themselves upon the fund. As Stockport had contributed £200 a week to the fund which they thus overburdened, the struggle was necessarily brought to an abrupt conclusion. On the 1st of May, therefore, the committee announced that the employers had succeeded in their "unholy crusade" and that the operatives generally had deserted them in their hour of utmost need. The mills were opened and work was resumed; but some thousands failed to find employment and were reduced to destitution and pauperism. It has been computed that the sums expended in maintaining the unemployed in Preston alone amounted to £100,000. The loss of wages was more than three times that amount; and altogether the loss to the working classes by that disastrous strike could not be less than £500,000. The loss of capital to the manufacturers must have been incalculable, not to speak of the ruin of a multitude of shopkeepers. The principal leader was afterwards imprisoned for debt, contracted in carrying on the war.
We pass from this painful subject to a scene that furnishes a contrast. On the 10th of June, 1854, the Queen opened the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Many of those who witnessed the Exhibition in Hyde Park deplored the demolition of that magnificent structure, which the Commissioners of Woods and Forests would not suffer to remain. The materials were purchased by a private company, and removed to a new site on the summit of Penge Hill, upon which a new palace was constructed. A full description of this structure would be out of place here. It had three transepts, the centre one being 120 feet wide, and 208 feet high from the garden front. The whole nave was covered with an arched roof. This palace crowned an eminence from which there is a commanding view of the metropolis and of the rich and vast plains of Surrey and Kent. Internally, the palace was constructed upon the principle of illustrating the architecture of different ages, keeping in view its purposes as an educational institution. Thus it comprised a series of palaces, Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian, Byzantine, Moorish, German, French, English, and Italian. All these buildings, excepting the Egyptian, were reproduced on the scale of their originals. The building was filled with statues, casts of the great masterpieces of art, paintings, representations of savage tribes, exotic shrubs and plants, and art-collections of various kinds; while in the way of concerts, exhibitions, festivals, and fireworks, multitudes of pleasure-seekers were congregated. Though created by the enterprise of a private company, the Crystal Palace was in every respect worthy of the metropolis, and continued to be patronised by the masses, rather than the classes, though its immense size and cost of maintenance prohibited its becoming a distinct commercial success.